Webloyalty Recap
My “webloyalty is a scam” blog entry from 2004 continues to get thousands of hits per month, despite the fact that it appears to have dropped off the top Google search results. It should hit 100,000 unique visitors any day now, and 2,000 comments.
Every once in a while someone comments to defend the service. E.g., this, today, from “Jim”:
THIS IS THE OFFER WEBLOYALTY GIVES. yOU ARE ALL REALLY STUPID PEOPLE. MOST OF YOU OBVIOUSLY ARE UNEDUCATED BECAUSE YOU CAN’T READ. YOU ARE ALL A BUNCH OF STUPID FUCKIN PEOPLE. I FEEL SORRY FOR ALL OF YOU. YOU MAY ALL BE RETARDED, SORRY FOR THAT. THIS KIND OF THING MAY HAPPEN TO YOU FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES BECAUSE YOU DON’T READ WHAT YOU ARE AGREEING TO. HONESTLY WEBLOYALTY IS DOING NOTHING ILLEGAL, AND YOU WILL NEVER PUT THEM OUT OF BUSINESS OR WIN ANY KIND OF JUDGEMENT OR MONEY IN A LAWSUIT. GO BACK TO SCHOOL AND LEARN HOW TO READ,THAT IS MY ADVICE TO ALL OF YOU MORONS.
And then, a few minutes later, from the same IP address, from “Brian P.”:
I actually agree with Jim 2 posts ago. People who say these things really did not read what they were signing up for and that is all of your own faults.
I used to get more of these kinds of comments from people actually posting from their workplace, where their workplace IP address resolved to Webloyalty. Someone must have told Webloyalty employees to stop doing that, as the comments above come from an AOL IP address.
jim. May 30
I have never worked for or intend to work for webloyalty. But i pasted the offer they give people because I have seen the offer many times. I have never signed up because their service would not benefit me.All you have to do is hot No thanks or x out of it. It is that easy. I just want to make everyone aware they are not scamming people. You all need to just simply read things before you sign up. You all say it is a scam and contact the bbb but you really need to admit that you did not read the offer and take some responsibility for your own actions.Again for everyones benefit I will paste the offer again. And thanks for listening.
“So claim all your Shopper Discounts & Rewards benefits… plus get your $15.00 Cash Back Award! You’ll get your $15.00 Cash Back Award Coupon and instructions on the next page so you can access the Cash Back Network and start saving today! Plus we’ll send your Membership Kit email to you at your email address. Try all the benefits for the next 30 days FREE and see how much you save! There’s no obligation to continue. If you are completely satisfied, do nothing and you’ll enjoy ongoing savings for only $10 a month, and of course you have our Guarantee as described in the Offer and Billing Details! There’s no limit to the amount of money you can save
adam May 30
I don’t really have a dog in this fight, but it appears that there are many variations on the program, some more deceptive than others. I can only speak to my own experience, but in my case (now three years ago) (1) I was never shown the offer and (2) there were no confirmation emails. I run my own ISP, so I was able to look back through mail server logs all the way back to the date I supposedly signed up, and there were no emails from Webloyalty, despite their claim that they send three confirmation emails. Even if the confirmation email had been caught by a spam filter, it still would have appeared in the server logs. Finally, the Webloyalty customer service rep claimed at the time that I would have had to type my email address three times in order to sign up. That never happened.
Joseph Polchinski May 6
I recently fell victim to the Webloyalty scam through a MovieTickets.com purchase. I absolutely did not sign up for the Shoppers Discounts offer, such a product would hold no interest for me whatsoever. I am more motivated now by outrage than by the $96 they took. I have made it my mission to inform every customer of MovieTickets.com that MovieTickets.com will sell their credit card information to credit card thieves. This is a tall order, but with the internet and obsession a lot is possible.